Facts

On May 30, 2020, Michelle Horton was waiting near a protest in La Mesa. According to Michelle, while she was waiting for her children on a sidewalk by a gas station, two officers drove by and shot at her with a less-lethal projectile. She then filed a complaint against the County of San Diego, City of La Mesa, and the two officers she believed shot at her, Officers Sobzcak and MacLeod. Plaintiff dismissed Sobzack as a defendant early in the case since he was driving at the time and had no involvement in the deployment of less-lethals

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS: Plaintiff asserted that defendant officers were part of a four-car caravan of officers who drove past her, shot her in the breast, while she was unarmed, posed no threat, not engaged in any questionable activity, nor was resisting or fleeing arrest. She was standing by a well-lit gas station waiting for her children and not immersed in the crowd of protestors. Accordingly, she alleged claims against defendants for excessive force, Monell, Bane Act, battery, and negligence.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS: As to the defendant officers, they argued that plaintiff failed to adequately show that they were personally involved. County defendant generally claimed that a single incident involving two non-policymaking deputies was insufficient to establish plaintiff's claims against it. Defendants denied shooting plaintiff or anyone else at that intersection and contended that given the speed of the vehicles and angles as they travelled through the intersection, it is unlikely that the deputies could have shot Plaintiff.

Result

Plaintiff agreed to a $250,000 settlement with San Diego County shortly before trial, and the individual officers were dismissed.